The Great Geth Escape
by Cythwyn
Summary: The geth attack a small mining town, from which two young women escape.  Pursued by the geth, they enter into all sorts of shenanigans.  Might finish this, might not.  Tiiiime will tellll
1. Chapter 1

"Keep moving."

I glanced over my shoulder, my lips in a tight, pale line as my friend struggled up the rocky path, gravity and the loose pebbles and dirt threatening to knock her backward with every step. Her face as she looked up at me, had gone far beyond flushed and was now pale in exhaustion, sweat shining and plastering her fiery red hair to her face.

"Red, _please_, I can't," she gasped, and with a start I realized her fingertips were bloody from scrabbling at the rock all the way up. Her legs trembled violently, even cast in those cybernetic enhancements to battle the cerebral palsy that had tormented her her entire life.

"Do you want to get obliterated?" Despite my consternation at seeing her in this condition, and my sympathy for her exhaustion and pain, my thoughts were turned to the more obvious and much, much more dangerous problem.

We were being hunted. Not directly—if our pursuers knew we were actually here, they would be on us so fast we wouldn't even know we were dead. But I had the horrid feeling that they knew we were out here, they knew someone had escaped, and they knew we weren't far.

We had to keep moving.

"No," my friend panted. "But, oh god, just a second. Let me rest for a second."

"It's either rest or live," I snarled cruelly. "Get your lazy fat ass up."

"_No, _ Red. I need to rest." And she turned and sat on the rock she was currently resting on, leaning her head back with a grateful sigh as her weakened legs splayed in front of her, the cybernetics working overtime to restore circulation. Her skin there was deathly pale, and purple veins spidered across her legs, startlingly clear and obvious. Her skin slowly began to flush as the machines did their job. Behind her, the smoking crater of our home was just visible through the haze of dust that permeated everything.

I felt my own legs weaken. Now that we had stopped, and I was watching her rest, I felt the overwhelming urge to join her.

If I sat, I wouldn't be able to get up.

"Lara," I said.

"If they're close enough to catch up with us now," she near-whispered, not opening her eyes, "they're close enough to catch us even if we were walking."

I wavered uncertainly and sat next to her.

Lara looked at me. Exhaustion rimmed her blue eyes, and I knew I looked the same way. Not to mention the burns, scrapes and bruises decorating her face, hands, and forearms. I had a few less than she did, probably—it was easier for me to run and catch myself if I fell.

We said nothing, just sat there for a good long two minutes. The pain from my own blessedly minor wounds slowly rose as I brought my mind from escaping and the past to the just-as-horrifying present. I pushed it back with fear and anger.

"Come on," I said, standing. My legs wobbled dangerously and I locked my knees.

"Please, Red, listen, just another second—"

"Get the fuck up or I'm leaving you here."

She jerked her face up to look at mine, shock warring with fear and pain on her features. I said nothing, hardening my own face so she would think I wasn't kidding.

I would never leave her. I couldn't leave her. She was my best friend. I couldn't sacrifice my humanity by saving my own life, despite that she was in fact slowing us down.

But it worked. Lara heaved herself to her feet, panting with exertion and giving me a tormented look. I hid my concern behind my anger and turned my back, forcing myself up the long rocky path with strength born of sheer will and desperation. Behind me, my friend did the same. I knew her back was screaming in pain, that her fingertips were likely numb by now, that her legs couldn't handle much more stress.

It was better than being shot by geth.

They had come out of nowhere. Our colony was situated dangerously close to the Traverse, but just far enough in that people were wary, but not overly concerned with our proximity. Unfortunately, our colony happened to also be atop a very large and very dense eezo deposit. It was the whole reason it had been built there in the first place. It had begun as a mining colony, and had slowly grown as more and more people settled their families there. It had been paradise. At least, that's what I remembered it as.

Now, it was nothing more than a smear across a few square kilometers of the rocky, mountainous region.

The geth hit us hard, severed our communications, fired from orbit and destroyed much of our colony, and then came down personally to wipe the rest of us out as their machines split open the earth, ripping away chunks of eezo as their soldiers slaughtered anyone still left alive.

Except us.

Lara and I had been on a hike in the red cliffs above our home when the geth first struck. We had a perfect view of the destruction, and had been helpless to stop it, as our friends, family, and everyone else we knew were killed in one fell swoop. The shockwaves had nearly blown us off our feet, and if it weren't for Lara's quick "Get down!" I would have been frozen in blank confusion as I was swept off the side of the cliff. As it were, we anchored ourselves to the rocks and covered our heads as the geth burned the ground once, twice, three times.

Our binoculars helped us watch survivors when the dust settled slightly as they were coldly and systematically gunned down.

Our colony had been a small one. Everyone knew everyone else, and both Lara and I knew the names of every single man, woman and child that had died to an unsympathetic artificial intelligence, crushed like a bug under the heel of someone who cared not one iota for the smaller creatures.

We'd recorded every movement they had made. Recorded it, so someone would know what had happened to us.

I used my desperation and terror and rage at the injustice of it all to fuel my ascent into the mountains. Behind me, I hoped Lara was doing the same.

The dust and shards of stone still fell from the sky. The once-perfect day, with flawless cloudless skies, was now a sickening tannish-gray, and I expected it to stay that way for some time. Probably days. If not weeks.

The thick dust drifting around caught in our eyes and slipped into our nose and throats, and didn't make it any easier to walk, see, or breathe. Poor Lara had been born with not enough oxygen to the brain, which caused her cerebral palsy, and the choked air made it even more difficult for her to climb than me.

I remembered my studies of Ancient Earth, of the time of the dinosaurs, about how the meteorite had hit the planet and choked the air with dust, blocking out the sun. I wondered if this was how the dinosaurs felt.

Would we ever seen the sun?

We were headed up towards an old mine shaft that had hopefully not been collapsed by the blasts. It was our favorite hideout, and we had long since put food, water, and medical supplies there for when we stayed there overnight during the weekends. Hopefully it was all untouched. We needed all of it now, and we needed to stay low while the geth searched for us.

Because the geth _were _searching for us. I don't know why they weren't just firing at the mountainsides in hopes of simply incinerating us. Maybe they were worried that the resulting rockslide would ruin their machinery in the pit that was our home. Or... whatever. But through our binoculars, we had seen several geth look around at the mountains before sending out pale, quick-moving others that moved with a blur across the landscape in various directions. That was when I had doubled our pace.

"There's the rock that looks like a dick," I said. It had somehow survived the blasts, though it looked precariously close to finally collapsing. The rock had been a source of amusement and a good landmark for our periodic journeys into the mountains. "We're close."

"Oh... good..." she said it on a rising inflection, as if she was going to say something more, but then gave it up in favor of more panting.

After a minute, though, I looked over my shoulder. "What?"

"I-I think we're being followed."

I turned around fully and she collapsed against the rock wall, taking advantage of my pause. "No shit, Sherlock, we're being followed. They're _hunting _us." I wasn't really angry at her stupidity—she wasn't stupid, really—but had to sound angry. I _was _angry. Just not at her.

"No, I mean..."

"What? Fucking say it."

Lara looked up at me, then laboriously turned and looked down the path. "I heard something. I think they're onto us."

Oh, god. I stared down the path, and it was Lara's sweaty, bloody hand grabbing my own that snapped me out of it. "Come on. Let's go. Fast."

She didn't reply, just started up again. I let go of her hand and scrambled up the path, slipping and stumbling and probably making way more noise than was necessary, but oh god if they found us...

"Red! Wait, please..."

I turned and stumbled down a few feet and grabbed Lara's arm, pulling her up the last little bit of path and into the cave just as a flexible white geth skittered over the rocks right for us, flashlight eye staring unblinkingly at us. It paused, looked between Lara and I, and I grabbed a shovel right as it gathered itself for a leap.

I must have hit it, because it stumbled to the side off of me.

I was on the floor? As if it came with that realization, there was a sudden, blinding pain in the back of my skull and my shoulders and I felt my whole body clenching in paroxysms of agony. I saw stars. I retched. The geth must have leapt at me, and hard, because I was on the floor and my head, oh god my head...

A sudden scream. "Get OFF of her!" And there was the clanging sound, like metal on metal, only slightly dulled. It sounded again and again. As my vision cleared I saw that Lara had finally, finally found the strength to leap up, grab the shovel, and begin smacking the geth with it over and over.

Lara's legs were weak, but her arms were very, very strong. The geth stuttered and backed up as she followed it, smashing its head with the shovel so hard it jerked back and hit its head again on the stone wall. Lara dropped the shovel. I didn't know why, and it pissed me off. Her whacks had only been annoying inconveniences to it; what was she doing?

"Pick it up," I groaned, pushing with one hand and rolling myself over onto my side. The world spun. I fumbled at my omni-tool, fighting to dispense some medi-gel to at least get rid of the pain, but the keys wouldn't stop weaving and rippling under my gaze.

Lara screamed. The geth had reared up and was now towering over her, and oh god in another second it would crush her skull in a single swipe of its hand...

A suddenly loud, hissing _crack _sounded, and the geth was flung across the cavern with the force of whatever-it-was, spraying something white and liquid. Some of it splattered on me, and an arm skidded to a halt next to me. It had been blown clear off the geth's body.

Lara was slumped against the cave wall, mouth open in utter shock, and I lifted a hand, waving weakly to her. She snapped out of it and scrambled over to me. "Okay, wait, just... wait," she scrabbled at her own omni-tool, and after a second the pain faded and I could literally feel the bone healing itself and the skin sealing up.

I remained on the floor, dumbfounded and my thoughts whirling. "What—what—"

"I don't know," Lara's voice was panicked, "but please get up they know we're here now! Get up, Red!"

I kicked my legs and pushed with my hands. With Lara to help me, I got up, swaying, and stared, disbelieving, at the body of the geth. That couldn't have happened. It couldn't have. No one had a sniper rifle that powerful to take the machine out from across the gorge on another mountain! It wasn't possible—and through all the floating dust and debris, no less—no, it was impossible, it couldn't have happened...

"Lara. Lara. What happened."

"I don't fucking _know_, but we've gotta _move_..."

I looked down at her, and almost began laughing at the irony. We had switched roles. If I started laughing, however, I knew I would collapse into hysterics. "Okay. Grab the medikits over there, and the food packets, and put them in the backpack—"

We scrabbled together as much as we could, and stuck it in two backpacks. Neither of us were rested up enough to carry such things, but we didn't have much choice. The mine shaft went through several mountains and ended up on the far side of the range. We had no weapons besides random bits of machinery and ancient shovels and pitchforks. We could only hope to travel quickly, and quietly, and get to the other side before...

...There was nothing for us on the other side. But I suspected it was just a goal, something to look forward to, something to set. If we could make it to the other side, we would be accosted by more geth... but we would make it to the other side.

Something to look forward to, at least.

We headed into the tunnel.


	2. Chapter 2

Fear fueled our pace. The geth knew where we were now. Exactly where we were. Exhaustion didn't even register mentally, though dimly I thought I could feel my legs shaking. It could have been from fear, though. That's what I kept telling myself, anyway. It was fear, use the fear, run faster, don't stop, don't _stop_...

"Red. Get up, Red!"

So closed and narrow my mind had been to running, I didn't even realize that I had tripped and fallen. Instinctively I had thrown my arms up, slapping my forearms against the rough uneven rock floor to break my fall.

It took several seconds for my brain to catch up to my body. My head and chest ached. Medi-gel was a miracle drug, but it wasn't a cure-all, and it would take time for my wounds to actually mend.

"Red?"

I rolled over. The backpack prevented me from lying on my back, so I sat up against it. The shocking coldness against my bare skin indicated that I was really, really sweaty. "I'm okay," I managed to whisper. "I'm fine."

Lara stared down at me, biting her lip. I stared back up at her. Neither of us said anything for a while, and then she took a deep breath. "Red—Pyrrha—you have to get up."

"I know. And don't call me that."

More staring. I couldn't seem to focus—well, my eyes focused fine; it was my brain that had all the trouble—and after another moment Lara drew her foot back and very deliberately kicked me in the side.

Pain exploded into my senses and the world grew fuzzy. I remained still and silent, my breath frozen in my chest. Again I felt my face pressed to rock; the force of the kick had knocked me back over onto my side.

While Lara had a cybernetically-enhanced foot, she had also kicked the spot that I'm sure my ribs had been crushed by the white geth stalker-thing. Pieced together by the Medi-gel, they were hideously weakened and gave without complaint at the force of my friend's limb.

Lara was babbling something, and I felt her hands on me. Everywhere she touched flared up with fiery pain. "Omigod, Red, I'm so sorry, I didn't think it would actually—I didn't mean to kick you that hard, I'm so sorry, are you okay? Red, talk to me!"

Cool stone pressed against my cheek—I had rolled onto my side and curled up around my throbbing ribs, trying to banish the fuzzy yellow spots that threatened to hijack my vision from both pain and lack of air. Then, a sudden relief as Lara dispensed more of the stuff. "There," I heard her say. "There, that should be better. Red, can you say anything? C'mon, girl..."

I rolled back over and glared at her. "What the _fuck, _Lara," I snarled.

"I'm so sorry! I just wanted to get you up—"

"You have _metal supports _on your legs, you _idiot_! Are you trying to kill me?"

"No! I'm sorry!"

I managed to sit up. "Fuck."

"I'm sorry."

I felt myself calming slowly. "I know."

She sat back on her heels awkwardly. Now that she was resting, she was brought back to the present and her shoulders and legs began to shake so violently she had to lean back and sit on her butt. She was panting, her face and body dangerously white. Her cybernetics could only do so much, and they were only programmed to deal with her legs. Of course, all the blood in her body had to go through her legs, too. By no fault of hers, Lara was in seriously bad shape.

"We need some sort of weapon," she said after a moment. "Just in case they chase us."

"You mean when," I replied, and accepted her weary hand to help me to the wall. I tried to lean against it, but pain prevented me from putting any pressure on my torso. Lara dithered, then sank down next to me. I gently put my forehead against the cool stone, and we let it soothe our nerves for a bit.

I looked down at my trembling hands. They were stiff and covered with flecks of dried blood, caked with dirt, and dotted with bruises. Half of my left ring fingernail was missing, and as I flexed the finger a stab of pain shot up my hand. Funny, I hadn't noticed that before. I'm sure there were a lot of things I didn't notice, but I didn't want to focus too much on them. The last thing I needed was to be crippled with pain (though Lara had already done that rather efficiently). I closed my eyes, just letting the stone cool me off.

I wished I could take off the damned backpack and let my shoulders and chest rest for a while. But I needed what was in the backpack, and if I took it off I wouldn't be able to put it back on in a hurry because of the ache in the muscles associated in those parts. Not to mention my twice-broken ribs.

"We still need weapons," Lara was saying.

I opened my eyes reluctantly and snorted. "Yeah, okay. Like that's going to do _anything_? Neither of us could manage to hit them enough to actually _hurt_ them."

"We could take them by surprise." She refused to be daunted.

I glared at her. "They're _robots_," I said. "They can't _be _taken by surprise. They'd hear us coming a _mile away._"

She hunched her shoulders. "Well, I'm not running around an empty, potentially unstable mine shaft with geth hunting us _empty-handed_," she snapped back. "It's better than hoping they don't find us!"

"It doesn't matter. We're dead anyway," I replied. I didn't mention the fact that the end of the mine shaft was a potential death trap. We both knew that.

Lara turned to glare back at me, and I realized that she was getting pissed. My friend very, very rarely got angry like I did, and she was annoying when angry, especially since she couldn't move like a normal person. Also, unlike me she would completely fail to channel her anger into something useful, so I sighed and tried to think of something that would dissuade her. No dice, my mind just wasn't working. "Lara, just shut up for a minute and let's rest. We can argue later."

"We need _weapons_!"

"We'll _find _weapons, maybe. But right now, just... shut up, and let me rest, okay?" It was hard enough to do that while my feet were throbbing and I couldn't sit down or lean against anything, and it was doubly so while she was nattering on like that.

Lara's scowl deepened and she looked away, rubbing one arm absently with the opposite hand. Her anger filtered out of her just as abruptly as it had appeared. "What about that... whoever it was. The person who... destroyed that geth."

I didn't want to think about that, so I stood up straight again and forced my mind on a track I could more easily think about. Weapons. Right. "Let's keep going. We'll have to come across a... a mining station, or something, later."

Lara slowly stood. I had to grab onto her arm to keep her from falling over as she did so—she wasn't the most coordinated person, and the backpack made it extra hard for her to balance when she tried to stand from a sitting position. "Yeah. Think they'll have a mech or something down here? Something we could... reprogram, or whatever?" Once more she was uncertain and worried, her teeth chewing at her bottom lip.

I rolled my eyes, but I was glad that our roles were back the way they were supposed to be. "Think about it, genius. Can _you _program?"

"Uh... no."

"Neither can I."

"It can't be too hard..."

"Okay, well, _you _try if we see one. You don't even have the right programs in your omni-tool!"

She looked quickly down at her arm and sighed, but didn't answer.

"C'mon."

We continued down the long, dark shape of the tunnel, the light from Lara's hastily-drawn glow-stick slowly dimming as we proceeded. It would be out soon, and we only had one left after that—mine. After _that, _our omni-tools would serve as flashlights. Our tools weren't exactly the best on the market, though, and I knew mine only had maybe twelve hours left of battery. I had to use it sparingly, though I had no idea how much energy Lara had in hers.

"You never answered my question," Lara said suddenly; I glanced at her from the corner of my eye.

"What?"

"The sniper. Who could it have been?"

I considered, glad for a chance to keep my mind from our gloomy surroundings. Rock and mineral gleamed quietly in the shine of the glow-stick, a bubble of gentle light moving slowly down the tunnel. "I... I honestly don't know."

There was a silence. "Couldn't have been a colonist," Lara mused after a bit. "None of the people there were soldiers or infiltrators, or otherwise knew how to use a sniper rifle."

"How do you know that? Maybe someone was a soldier before they moved here. Maybe they were on a walk, like we were, before the geth came."

"With... a sniper rifle?"

I hesitated, struggling to find a logical response for that. "Maybe... maybe they liked to watch people in the colony through the scope?"

"That would be creepy, Red."

Suddenly, the bubble of light expanded into darkness and illuminated a small side-passage. We hesitated. We had never been down here before, obviously; we had always been worried about the stability of the mine and had never ventured past the entrance and immediate vicinity of the extending tunnels.

"Which way?" Lara whispered.

"I... I don't..." The larger path was likely the main path. "Let's check out the side passage. I want to see what's down there."

Lara jerked her gaze over to me. "What the hell? We don't have time for exploring!"

I shook my head gently, so I wouldn't get a headache. Or a worse one. "You wanna find weapons, don't you?"

She was quiet, but she did follow me down the side passage. Not thirty feet down the tunnel it had caved in, and we were forced to return to the main tunnel.

"Smart fucking idea," Lara muttered.

"Shut up. Keep your eyes open for another one."

The next one was caved in as well, a little farther in. Useless. Fuck!

"Red," Lara hissed. "It's lighter down there. Where we came from. I can hear that sound too... there's something..."

"Run," I whispered back. Slowly, we forced our aching, injured bodies to accelerate, striving to keep our feet from hitting the ground too hard. I glanced behind us. Yes, the tunnel had definitely gotten lighter, and I could hear those light skittering sounds—no, I had to be imagining it, I couldn't hear anything over the pounding of my blood in my ears.

"Down here!" Lara panted. We darted into yet another side-passage. If anything, it would buy us some more time... maybe.

It was a short passage, and it opened up suddenly into a small cavern. Lining the walls were...

Lara stared in confusion at the hand-held tools. "Why the hell would they use these? Why wouldn't they use mechs, or laser cutters, or something?"

"Maybe it's a spare store room, for emergencies." I shrugged. "It's all we have though... a laser would be awesome, but—"

A sudden sound made us both freeze. It was a slight shifting noise, a gentle scrape across rock, and my friend grabbed my arm in horror as the end of the small path brightened slowly at the approach of a flashlight-headed artificial intelligence.

I didn't think. I grabbed an ancient pick-ax and threw it as hard as I possibly could as the white stalker geth that skittered around the corner, hitting it dead-on and knocking it from the wall it had been clinging to. Agony exploded from my shoulder and I doubled over in pain. The backpack nearly knocked me over.

"Grab something! Anything! Quick!" I screamed at Lara; white-faced, she lunged for the metal tools as the thing rose from its prone position and stood, white liquid streaming from where the pick-ax was embedded in its chest. Lara grabbed what looked like a gigantic hammer and instead of throwing it she lunged, holding the hammer aloft and swinging like a madman.

I don't know why the geth didn't move more quickly. Maybe it was disoriented after being stabbed in the chest—maybe I had hit something important. But either way, as Lara ran yelling at it (heh, she did have quite a mouth on her. I'd probably laugh if I weren't worried about both of our continued existences) it took a step to the side—not far enough, and not fast enough. Lara gave a mighty swing and absolutely obliterated the geth's single eye in one foul swoop.

It staggered back, righting myself as my adrenaline dulled the pain in my arm and chest. I gathered my own courage and ran forward, following her as she swung again. Grabbing the pick-ax embedded in its chest, I braced myself and pulled back, ripping synthetic muscle and spraying white fluid everywhere. It convulsed and missed my face with a metal hand—just barely. Unwittingly, Lara had saved my life (again) by smashing it in the head once more.

The geth made odd stuttering noises, dropping to all fours and scuttling away.

"_Oh _ fuck no!" Lara followed it. "I don't _fucking _think so, you metal son of a BITCH!"

I stepped back and watched, stunned, as she proceeded to beat the ever-living (or non-living) shit out of it.

Whoa.

"Does your head hurt? I can _fix _that!"

"Uh, Lara?"

"What?"

"It's dead."

"It's still moving."

"That's called 'death-throes.'"

Lara glared at me. "It's a robot, Red. They don't have 'death-throes'."

I considered the twitching AI. "Well, they have to have sort-of nervous systems. I wouldn't be surprised if during the dying—forced deactivation—process, random electrical surges caused the same erratic movements than that of an organic going through the same process."

My best friend stared at me, a distinctly crazed look in her eyes. I managed a smile.

"Did you just." She glared. "Pull a scientific explanation out of your _ass _about the dying process of the geth."

I scratched my head, flaking some dried blood loose. "Yeah."

Lara's glare intensified, and she suddenly sighed and dropped the hammer, her arms hanging loosely by her sides. "Okay," she said, and plopped down too, finally overcome with exhaustion.

"Get up. We can't just sit here." I walked over and grabbed the hammer, holding out a hand for Lara to take. She took it and slowly, laboriously, stood. Sweat glowed on her exposed skin and she trembled with fatigue. I turned and hefted the pick-ax, then handed it to her. She looked at me, and I looked at her and cracked a smile. With a groan she closed her eyes and wiped sweat from her face.

"Okay. Okay."

"We've got to hurry."

"I know. Wait—your shoulder—"

"Medi-gel later. Come on."

She put a foot in front of the other, then the other, and the other. I matched her, step for step, as we accelerated into a jog, once again disappearing into the darkness of the mine. Vaguely, I hoped we would live to see blessed daylight as the very last vestiges faded from view.


End file.
